Twitch Twitch in Peru

 

If I had to resume the whole 2 months in one word it would be "awesome".

The amount of birds and the different species we caught in two months wasn't normal for this place. In total we caught 366 birds and 102 species from the end of August to the end of Ocotber. In the past 8 months (January-August) Rachel K. caught about 400 birds in total. We also broke two personal records, the highest amount of individuals and species captured in one day -- 48 birds  and 31 species.

 

Compared with my knowledge of the Peruvian birds of 2013 almost everything was new for me. About 82 species that we caught and ringed this year were completely unknown to me.  

The observation data was interesting too. In two months I observed 218 species in the nature reserve Taricaya, of which I did not know 116. In total we recorded 5 new species for Taricaya in two months (+2 by another volunteer)! 

 

By reading all this there is the question why there were so many birds and this high amount of different species?

 

Well first of all I definitely ringed more than I did in 2013. We also ringed only one day at one place and after that changed to another place. Note: There is always a higher possibility to get more birds during the first day ringing. The number of birds is going down in the upcoming activities at the same place.  

 

We tried new places as well. Normally the ringing activities in Taricaya are done with mistnets in the forest, around farms, next to creeks or near buildings. Rarely the ringing activities took place in the swamps, because the only possibility to enter this place is at the end of the dry season. Furthermore the swamps are far away and most of the time it isn´t worth carrying all the ringing material across the jungle.

During the past two months we tried to catch birds at new places like on the beach, in the lagoon, in two different swamps and in the Canopy platform,  42m high on the top of a Canopy tree. 

All this explains the high number of species. An explication for the high number of birds is probably the fact that we ringed during the migration time with austral and boreal migrants overlapping . This explains especially the high number for the creamy-bellied Thrush.  

  

Another reason for the high amount of birds caught and ringed is the fact that we caught during the cold front. The normal temperature in the jungle is around 30-35°C during the day and 20-25°C during the night. But the temperature can drop to 13•C during the night when a cold front from the Andes arrives. Normally they didn't start any bird ringing activity at this point but it occured that during this period more birds than usually are active. Literally the whole jungle is moving and searching for food.

 

All in all, the number of birds we caught and the amount of species we got, was really special this year and extraordinary for Taricaya (a list with all the birds we caught is below). I´m really happy I came back and enjoyed the time here with bird observation and bird ringing. Again, I learned a lot about the jungle and the biodiversity at a place like this.

 

 I would like to THANK Rachel. I am looking forward to coming back one day!